What is Footprinting ?

The systematic footprinting of an organization will allow attackers to create a complete
profile of an organization’s security posture.


By using a combination of tools and tech-
niques, attackers can take an unknown quantity (Widget Company’s Internet connec-
tion) and reduce it to a specific range of domain names, network blocks, and individual IP
addresses of systems directly connected to the Internet.

While there are many types of
footprinting techniques, they are primarily aimed at discovering information related to
these technologies: Internet, intranet, remote access, and extranet.

Table 1-1 depicts these
technologies and the critical information an attacker will try to identify.

Why Is Footprinting Necessary?

Footprinting is necessary to systematically and methodically ensure that all pieces of in-
formation related to the aforementioned technologies are identified.

Without a sound
methodology for performing this type of reconnaissance, you are likely to miss key pieces
of information related to a specific technology or organization.

Footprinting is often the
most arduous task of trying to determine the security posture of an entity; however, it is
one of the most important.

The footprinting process must be performed accurately and in
a controlled fashion.

INTERNET FOOTPRINTING

While many footprinting techniques are similar across technologies (Internet and
intranet)